Kotor Travel Guide 2026: Fortress Hike, Perast & Prices

The walls climb about 260 m up Mount San Giovanni (St John) to a fortress at the top, with roughly 1,350 steps on the way. Halfway up you pass the small Church of Our Lady of Remedy (Gospa od Zdravlja), built in 1518. From the top you see the whole old town and the bay folding around the mountains. Keep in mind that the steps are uneven and there is no shade.

Price: €15 · Time needed: 1.5 to 2 hours return · Tip: start before 8:00 or go 1.5 hours before sunset; bring water and good shoes.

You enter through the Sea Gate (1555), the main gate facing the harbour. Right inside is the Square of Arms with the Clock Tower from 1602 and, in front of it, a small stone pyramid where people were once put on public display as punishment. Wander toward the Square of Flour, the Square of Milk and the North Gate, all named after the trades once held there.

Price: free · Time needed: half a day · Tip: download an offline map; the lanes are a real maze.

Kotor's Catholic cathedral was consecrated in 1166 and is dedicated to the city's patron saint. Its two towers were rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake, which is why they look different. Inside are 14th-century frescoes and a treasury with silver and gold reliquaries.

Price: small fee (about €5) · Time needed: 30 minutes.

Two churches on the same square show the town's mixed history. St Luke's (1195) was Catholic for centuries and later Orthodox, and for a while it had altars for both. St Nicholas is the large Serbian Orthodox church built in 1909.

Price: free · Time needed: 20 minutes.

In an 18th-century palace, the museum tells the story of the Boka sailors, who were famous across the Mediterranean, with ship models, uniforms and navigation tools.

Price: about €5 · Time needed: 45 minutes.

Cats have lived in Kotor for centuries, brought by sailors to control rats on ships. They are now the town's unofficial symbol. There is even a small Cats Museum.

Price: Cats Museum about €3–5; the money helps feed the street cats.

Perast is a tiny baroque village 12 km from Kotor with 16 churches and stone palaces built by rich sea captains. Just offshore is Our Lady of the Rocks, an artificial island. The legend says that in 1452 two sailors found an icon of the Virgin on a rock here, and for centuries locals dropped stones and sank old ships to make the island. They still do it every 22 July in a boat ceremony called Fašinada. The church inside has 68 paintings by the baroque artist Tripo Kokolja.

Price: boat from the Perast waterfront about €5–10 return; small fee for the church museum · Time needed: half a day · Tip: the Blue Line bus from Kotor stops in Perast.

Above Kotor, a road with 25 hairpin bends (the Serpentine) climbs to Lovćen National Park. At 1,657 m, on the peak of Jezerski vrh, is the mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the poet-prince of Montenegro, reached by 461 steps through a tunnel. The view covers almost the whole country. A cable car from Kotor to Lovćen also opened in 2023.

Price: mausoleum about €8 · Time needed: half a day · Tip: stop in the village of Njeguši for smoked ham (pršut) and cheese.

The beach and party town of Montenegro, with its own small walled old town and long beaches. Easy as a day trip.

Getting there: bus from Kotor, about 40 minutes, around €3–4.